‼️ Call for submissions ‼️
On behalf of ASC’s DEC and DOP, we invite submissions for a SI of the Journal of Experimental Criminology dedicated to Experiments in Policing and Public Safety.
Abstracts due: Mar 6, 2026
Full call: link.springer.com/journal/1129...
Contact: Rylan Simpson & Justin Nix
Officers perceived the helicopter unit favorably and equated its work to multiple ground-level officers at a call.
Some nuance emerged among questions and groups of officers.
I discuss results re: policing research and practice.
Full article available for free via doi.org/10.1093/poli....
3/3
I surveyed officers from 2 police agencies in USA that employ helicopter units. 🚁
I asked officers about their perceptions of purpose, utility, deterrence, benefits, and personal impacts of helicopter unit.
I then analyzed responses, incl by police agency and unit assignment, via quant means.
2/3
Helicopter units = common among large police agencies in USA and CAN.
Goal of these units = help officers on the ground.
But, what do ground-level officers actually think about helicopter units?
In my new PJPP article, I surveyed officers about their attitudes: doi.org/10.1093/poli...
A 🧵:
1/3
We discuss the results from our researcher-practitioner collaboration with respect to policing research & practice.
We are especially excited about this project because it included participation from 3 PDs in 3 provinces of Canada.
Full article available for free via doi.org/10.1016/j.jc....
4/4
Our analyses revealed little effect of the presence of police cars on calls at malls, with possible effects observed at only one mall.
However, our analyses revealed effects for police visibility: with variation in reported sightings of police cars by mall patrons across the study period.
3/4
As part of study, we parked police cars (of different designs as randomly assigned) daily outside of malls at conspicuous locations in 3 Canadian cities.
We then compared the number of calls along with public sightings of police cars at malls during intervention period to weeks before/after.
2/4
Shopping malls = sites of many people, social activities & crimes.
Demand for police is especially high at malls during the holiday shopping season (HSS).
In new article, we parked police cars at malls during the HSS to assess their effects on calls & visibility: doi.org/10.1016/j.jc...
A 🧵:
1/4
Teaching and mentorship rest at the root of nearly everything that I do as a scholar, educator, and researcher.
I feel incredibly honoured to receive this award from the American Society of Criminology's Division of Policing.
We discuss our findings in the context of policing research and practice, including as it relates to social media and community policing.
I am very proud of Janine for this work and excited to celebrate her first publication. 👏
For more information, please see: doi.org/10.1108/PIJP....
4/4
Consistent with organizational-level findings, we found that officers frequently employed the push strategy when tweeting.
Nonetheless, some variation in engagement style and posting practices emerged by officer characteristics, including officer gender, officer rank, and frequency of posting.
3/4
We created a dataset of officers who use Twitter (X) in a professional capacity and then analyzed their characteristics and tweets.
This resulted in a sample of 66 officers and thousands of tweets.
We coded all tweets for content using a detailed codebook.
2/4
🚨 Social media is everywhere, including in policing.
👮 In new article, led by my SFU graduate student, Janine Namoro, we examined how officers use Twitter (X) at an individual-level in a professional capacity.
📊 We find many interesting findings: doi.org/10.1108/PIJP...
A thread:
1/4
I discuss what my results might mean for how police agencies design and deploy their police vehicles.
I also highlight the implications of police vehicle designs for research regarding police interventions.
The full article is now available for download via doi.org/10.1007/s112....
5/5
My results revealed greater detection accuracy when the police vehicle was marked versus unmarked, with increases in accuracy as visual salience increased.
Under low visibility conditions, my results also revealed greater detection accuracy of marked vehicles when they had a B&W color scheme.
4/5
I strategically manipulated the design of the police vehicle in the images: sometimes it was marked (either with a B&W or all-white color scheme) whereas other times it was unmarked.
I also varied how visually salient the police vehicle was in the image: ranging from low to high.
3/5
As part of my experiment, I tested if police vehicle designs impact public detection of police vehicle presence.
I presented randomly assigned images to participants under the guise of a visual detection study and asked them to indicate if/where a police vehicle was located.
2/5
🚨 Police visibility = important metric for many policing activities.
It’s often assumed that physical presence of police equates to public sightings of police.
But do ppl always see police when they're present?
In my new JOEX article, I find the answer is *no*: doi.org/10.1007/s112....
A 🧵:
1/5
Assistant professor Rylan Simpson has been awarded an Arnold Ventures Criminal Justice Research Grant to explore the effects of Live 911 technology on a variety of policing outcomes.
Congratulations to Rylan for this well-deserved recognition!
buff.ly/ahzhKzb
#SFUCriminology #Policing #Research
With award season in full swing, it's time to nominate your students, colleagues, and mentors for DEC/AEC awards!
All nominations must be submitted via email by July 18, 2025.
For more info re: awards, please visit our awards page: expcrim.org/call-for-awa....
Please repost & share widely!
It is with great excitement and tremendous pride that I share that I have been awarded tenure and promotion in the School of Criminology at SFU.
To my students, colleagues, mentors, and role models: thank you for inspiring me and helping me to get to where I am today!
Given the longstanding debate in policing regarding crewed status, this was an especially insightful project for me! 🚔
🚨 Open access brief: doi.org/10.22215/apb...
🚨 Open access article: doi.org/10.1016/j.jc...
🚨 Thread: 👇
I feel incredibly honoured to receive this award from SFU.
Thank you to all who have supported me in this journey and to my students who continue to inspire me to do this important work!
It has been a pleasure to work with, teach & supervise Janine.
I am very proud of all of her accomplishments, and I look forward to her continued journey in our MA program!
Last night I hosted 4 officers from 3 different agencies/detachments as part of my @sfucriminology.bsky.social CRIM 251 panel on frontline policing. 🚔
Thx to Coquitlam RCMP's Cpl. Hejazi & Cst. Wong, Ridge Meadows RCMP's Cst. Twa & Vancouver PD's Cst. Tan for sharing your experience w/ my students!
Kicked off my SFU CRIM 251 panel series with an important discussion about police leadership.
Thanks to DPD's Chief Sidhu, Burnaby RCMP's Insp. Hartwig & Ridge Meadows RCMP's Insp. Gander for participating & sharing your insights with my @sfucriminology.bsky.social students! 🚔
